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We got it (the Pacifica) and now it's gone - thanks to a incredibly brilliant driver.

It all started out so well. I decided to go to the dealership closest to my office at lunch time. Once I got to the point of talking price and they knew that I was serious about buying the car, we were actually able to get to a deal pretty quickly. I guess the end of the month was working in my favor. They started from the invoice price and starting taking deductions from there. It wasn't long before we had the deal all ironed out.

I went from the dealer to the Credit Union; Credit Union to my house to pick up my wife and kids; my house to the Credit Union so my wife could sign the papers; Credit Union to the dealership to pick up the car.

A mere 7 hours after I walked into the dealership we had her shiny new Blue Chrysler Pacifica Touring Edition with Leather, Moonroof, etc. My 4 year daughter couldn't stop talking about it. My 1 year old son kept looking around the car as they drove across the street saying, "Oooo. Wow. Weee." We went across the street to grab a well deserved dinner after a long day.

After dinner is when it all came to an end (for the time being at least). We were heading home - my wife and kids in her new car and me in my car. We were stopped at a traffic light, right in front of the dealership, at a very busy intersection. The light turned green and I started to go. My wife was a few cars back in the other lane and their line hadn't started moving yet. As I was looking in my rear view mirror, I saw a one car hit another. I couldn't tell whether it was my wife's car or a car behind her that got hit. My cell phone ringing 2 seconds later answered that question. Everyone was OK, other than scared crying kids, and she had been rear ended.

A lady in a Saturn had run into her somewhere around 30-40 miles per hour. The saturn was totaled. It's airbags deployed. The front end was crumpled to about half of it's original length. The driver was as OK as she could be in a situation like that.

My wife's new car (after having driven less than 1 mile) was damaged pretty good. The back bumper was ripped off. One of the mufflers was pushed all the way into the driver's side rear tire. The tailpipe had dropped. The frame supporting the bumper appeared bent. The back seat door on the driver's side would not close properly. The tailgate (rear hatch) would not close properly. The rear quarter panel on the driver's side was crumpled. Somehow, the kids weren't hurt at all and my wife said her neck and back are a little sore (comparable to the day after a hard workout) - she is going to get checked out today.

The fun continued today as I spoke to Geico (the insurance company of the car that hit my wife). She only has the state minimum coverage and if the damage is more than $10k, my insurance company (State Farm) will have to pay the difference.

I am not going to settle for anything less than what we had 5 seconds before the accident - a brand new car with no damage and no accident history. I guess it will be a while before it all gets worked out.

Un-Freaking-Real. (It is a good thing that I don't have a bad temper, because this would be the situation where someone could lose it.)

Do you think that we will get a new car or they will try to get us to live with them fixing our car (if possible)? If they eventually get us a new car any guesses on the O/U of when we will get it (2 weeks, 1 month, 2 months)?

We have decided to get a 6 Passenger Chrysler Pacifica for her. It isn't a mini-van - really, it isn't. We aren't caving in and getting a mini-van. (Yes, we are going to keep kidding ourselves.)

We went to the dealership with the intention of getting a good deal on a 2006 model that we saw on their website. ($4,000 rebates on the 2006 vs. $1,500 on the 2007) Of course, they didn't have any 2006 models left. We got sucked in and test drove a 2007 model with all the options that we wanted. My wife loved it and we are now certain that it is the car for her.

Once we got back to the dealership the fun began. The salesman came back with a price that had the MSRP minus the $1,500 rebate plus delivery of $600 and doc prep of $200. He asked how that looked - obviously not good. They tried the "What payment are you looking for?" game. He then asked what I wanted to pay for the car. My response, "What is the best price that you can sell it to me for?" I told him he needed to take another $5k off. He left the table saying he had to talk to the manager. My wife said that he turned beat red when I told him he needed to take $5k off the price. (I guess she might be good at picking up tells at the poker table.)

It went back and forth and eventually he brought the next salesman up the ladder (his boss) over and with another $2k off plus the fees. The wouldn't budge any more than that - other than removing the $800 of fees from the equation. We eventually left while the guy was trying to get me to come into his office to do "whatever research you want to do on the internet."

I think I will roll the dice and see what happens after December 4th when the $1,500 rebate is up. I am guessing the incentives/rebates for the last month of the year will probably be better.

I was a little tired last night and looking for a change of pace. I didn't think I would be playing my best but wanted to play a little, so I played the following (mostly 1 table at a time):

$24 MTT on FTP - I haven't been doing well in MTTs lately and wanted to try a few new things. I figured a $24 MTT was a good place to experiment. Everything was working well until I ran AQ into A2 and A2 caught 2 pair. 340 +/- out of 1,150 +/-.

1,800 FPP turbo 30 player MTT on Pokerstars (paid $215 to top 4) - My 77 was no match for 66 all-in preflop. A six on the flop and it was all over for me. It didn't even phase me since it was a freeroll.

I was feeling a little better and decided to play a turbo 9 player $220 SNG on FTP. I wanted to work on my SNG play a little since I will probably being playing some of the PCA double shootouts. The SNG was pretty entertaining because Jeff Madsen was at the table. One of the guys at the table was talking trash to him and he was jabbing back at the guy. I wish I would have saved the chat since it was pretty funny. Madsen told the guy he should be playing $10 SNGs instead of $200 - I was surprised that he appeared to be letting the guy get in his head. Like in all turbo SNGs, you have to win races late to win. I finished 3rd for a small profit when my 1010 lost to AQ.

It was still pretty early and I didn't feel like playing more than one table. I knew that I would be a little too impatient so I sat at a 2/4 NL 6 Max table and waiting for a player to join since FTP doesn't have any dedicated 2/4 NL Heads Up tables. It didn't take long for a guy to sit with $160. I think I busted him 4 or 5 hands later with a boat vs. a straight and he left. Another guy joined with $80 and went all in every hand. I called him the 3rd time with 99 and it held up against his AJ. Once the table filled, I left and went to a new table. It was strange, the 2nd player to join the table always seemed to buy-in for the minimum ($80) or the default ($160) and either played way too tight for heads up or way too loose for heads up.

About a year ago, I played a lot 6 max NL cash games on Pokerstars. I used to always start up tables and it seemed like they had the same trend over there - a player would join the table with either the min or default buy-in or buy-in for the remaining of their balance (ex - $103.80). They always seemed to either play too tight or too loose. This made it very easy to exploit them and get all their chips either quickly or slowly bleed them dry (not to mention how +EV situtations like this are).

I think I might start playing some more HU cash games against the short buy-ins when I am looking for a change of pace. It is pretty profitable and helps me stay off the auto-pilot mode I sometimes get into when 4 tabling cash games.

I had been playing Loose Aggressive and I think that I was starting to get under this guy's skin. I am not sure what he was thinking other than maybe I was bluffing. I think it is a pretty good example of how a LAG image can get you a lot of action on your big hands.

I am not sure why I have been playing any 5/10 NL cash games, when the money seems so much easier at 2/4 NL. People have a tendancy to go on tilt a lot more and there are a lot of people that don't have a clue how to play cash games (especially short handed).

------------Pokerstars PCA

What to do? What to do?

I am not sure what I should do. I wasn't able to play the $650 MTT sat this weekend and won't be able to play it next weekend (will be at SEC Championship game). I guess my next shot at it will be December 9th. I played one double shootout this weekend without any luck.

I am considering going to Atlantis even if I don't win my seat, but not playing in the main event unless I win my seat. I am not sure what to do? I guess I will have to try some more double shootouts between now and December 9th.

Sometimes poker can be frustrating. This weekend was one of those times. Every time that I took two steps forward, I took two steps back. I finished up the weekend down about 1/2 buyin. It seemed like I couldn't do anything wrong and then it seemed like I was getting outdrawn every hand.

I am still plugging along with trying to hit 20k cash game hands by the end of the month. Right now, I have just barely 10k hands thanks to being out of town one weekend. I am going to stick with 2/4 NL during the week and mix in some 5/10 NL on the weekends depending on how good the tables are.

I played in a golf scramble yesterday. I am not a good golfer. I don't pretend to be a good golfer. I don't have the patience or time it would take to become a halfway decent golfer. I play the scrambles to have fun. That is the way that our entire foursome was. We were there to have fun, drink a few (well, ok maybe more than a few) beers and hack at the ball. It was a good time. I think we has the highest score - that should have won of some sort of prize.

After the tourney was over, there was dinner and a sweet raffle. Raffle tickets were $5 and the following prizes were being given out:

A friend of mine (who was also on my scramble team) won a 42" Plasma TV last year. Well, this year Mr. Lucky didn't win another TV, but he won a $250 Best Buy Gift Card. I guess some people are just lucky. :)

---------------FTOPS

I was looking forward to the FTOPS (Full Tilt Online Poker Series) Event last night. It was a $250k Guarantee $216 Six Player/Table Tourney. I play mostly 6 Max NL cash games, so I was hoping to have a good edge against a lot the regular full ring players. Unfortunately, I ran my flopped flush into a flopped nut flush during the first hour and busted out. I may have been able to get away from that hand in the early stages of a full table tourney, but I think it would have been a near impossible fold in a 6 max tourney.

I am only going to play the FTOPS #6 -PLHE and the FTOPS #7 - Razz. I would like to play the HORSE Tourney tonight, but that will probably last until 4-5 AM and I need some sleep. I can't play the Main Event on Sunday, because I am going to be watching my son while my wife and daughter are at the nutcracker.

-------------PCA

I haven't played any PCA satellites in a while. I can't play the MTT sat on Saturday, because we have plans. I think I am going to invest a few $$ in some double shootouts this weekend.

Go Gators!!Go Gators!!---------I didn't play a lot of poker this weekend, because we went to the Florida/South Carolina Football game. It was the 'Ol Ball Coach's return to the field that he dubbed "The Swamp." The Gators didn't play well, but managed to win the game thanks to Tebow's fourth down conversion, Leak's QB sneak on 3rd and long, and Jarvis Moss's well timed extra point and field goal blocks.

Despite Florida's lackluster performance, it was probably the best/ most exciting game that I have been to since we beat FSU in a close game in the 90s (back when some basketball player name Charlie Ward was FSU's quarterback). We were watching South Caronlina's kicker warm up at halftime and he was making field goals from 55 yards like they were extra points - good thing he kicks line drives; good thing Jarvis Moss is a monster.

Sounds like an easy question. I can't answer it for anyone else, but I know the reasons why I play poker - in no particular order.

1. I love playing the game2. I enjoy the challenges associated with always trying to improve.3. The thinking that is involved in every aspect of poker - your table image, your opponents playing style, the overall feel of the table, etc.4. Challenging myself.5. Interacting with others that also love the game though blogs, forums, home games, etc.6. Making extra income that provides a better quality of life for me and my family.

These are the reasons I play poker and why I am continually motivated to play poker. I'm sure everyone out there has their own reasons.

Sometimes I am distracted from one of my main reasons for playing #6 - making money. I think setting goals helps me to stay motivated/focused on what I am trying to acheive. We are saving for an addition to our house. I should be focusing on playing more cash games and hitting a certain number of hands played/month (money won is in direct proportion to the number of hands played in cash games). I have a lot higher hourly rate when playing cash games than I do while playing tourneys, but for some reason I feel the need to play the tourneys. I think it goes back to #4 - Challenging myself. Sometimes the challenge isn't there in the cash games. The play can be almost automatic/robotic at times. The tourneys provide the real challenge and exhiliration when you win. There is a lot more satisfaction in winning $3k in a tourney than winning a $3k pot in a cash game because something tangible was accomplished.

(Enough ramblings)

I have a set a goal of 20k hands this month and it helps to motivate me to play cash games. I will still be playing tourneys, but I am not going to be rushing to the computer to make it to that 8PM, 9PM, etc. start time. I will play tourneys for a change of pace from the cash games and to challenge myself to continually improve my tourney play, but my poker isn't going to revolve around them.

(I got off on a tangent a little with this post)

Basically, what I am trying to say is figure out why you are playing (fun, challenge, social spects) and what you are trying to acheive (just enjoying yourself, make money, work up to the next level, win a trip to WPT/WSOP). Set a goal for yourself (if that is what motivates you to stay focused) and try to acheive it.

I didn't get a ton of cash game hands in during October and plan on trying to change that during November. I am not setting a monetary goal for November just cash game hands played and PTBB/100 target and a PCA goal

November Goals:20k hands of short handed NL cash games of 2/4, 3/6, and 5/10 (25k hands would be preferable)SHNL cash game Target PTBB/100 = at least 5.0Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure - play at least 2 $650 Super Sats by qualifying through the $80 sub-sats. (Win a trip to the PCA would be the ultimate goal here obviously)

-----------------Full Tilt Poker Ironman Challenge

I qualified for the $30k Ironman freeroll by playing 99% of my poker on FTP during the month of October (it also helped that October had 31 days). Unfortunately, the freeroll is the same day at the Florida/South Carolina game. I am going to the game, so no freeroll for me. I guess I need to email FTP and have them unregister me from the freeroll so that it won't count against my rakeback.

------------------Pot Odds/ What was he thinking?

The hand below shows why you don't make huge overbets in a NL cash game.

I was in the BB and had to call $23 into a $142 pot knowing that I was last to act preflop - no brainer call in my mind, even with 62s. I flopped two pair and planned on check raising. It checked to the button. He immediately went all-in for $634 into a $165 pot - um what? The overbet makes absolutely no sense to me. He obviously doesn't have a set because the flop didn't have many draws and he wouldn't want to chase everyone away. He might have a big pair, but, still, no reason to bet so big. Anyway, I thought this hand was the perfect example of why a huge overbet with only an overpair is a -EV play in a cash game.